CSEHY!

First off I’d like to say that Csehy is the most amazing Christian Music camp God has ever blessed this earth with…And if y’all ever read this, a big thank you to Mr. Haynes, Mr. & Mrs. Rawleigh, Mr. & Mrs. Harding… and everyone – campers, counsellors, staff, teachers… who make Csehy the amazing place it is.

So, yeah… I s’pose I should start at the beginning.
I got to camp on Saturday June 21st, and met my counsellor, Carolyn H. Teh bestest counsellor ever.
Carolyn and Zein

I practiced briefly, took a shower, and then napped for a little while. In the evening Kalipay came and visited. That was fun, to see in flesh and bone someone whose blog I lurk… 😛
Sunday morning I read and practiced some more, and we had Church on campus and then I went down to the circle to pray for a while. Around 2 I finished registering and took the theory test. People started coming and I met a couple people on the steps of Memorial, my dorm. We had dinner and then auditions for band/orchestra and choir. Those went pretty well, then we had our first singtime which doubled as orientation in a lot of ways. We played some getting-to-know-you games down on the field. Guys and girls split up after that and went over some rules like dress code and “purple” (guys are blue, girls are pink… no purple).

Monday was pretty difficult… chapel was great – Mr. Haynes was doing the first week and talking about Math God’s Way (mixed in with some puns).
Then was band, which although fun was more difficult than I expected, which made things not go as well as I would’ve liked. But I guess everyone was sightreading so we all sounded pretty awful. Choir went well. I had a lesson during orchestra and that went pretty well. Mrs. Harding is really nice and although we went back to basics I still learned quite a bit. Frisbee during free time was amazingly fun, I didn’t do so well but frisbee is so wonderful that even if I don’t it’s still fun. 😛
Theory was fun, we have the bestest teachers in the world, Mr. and Mrs. Britton. I was in the minor scales, intervals, and triads class. So far mostly review, cuz although I’ve done all of that before, I’ve never done it officially and haven’t practiced them enough…
Singtime was absolutely gorgeous – we’d sing a hymn, and then someone could share and pick another hymn… encouraging.
During free time in the evening I talked with Layne about Rubik’s Cubes and played with his, which is really really fast.

Tuesday was pretty good. Band and choir were both easier, 2 hours of practice time was really long and boring.
During free time we played dodgeball, then soccer and frisbee. I had a bit of a collision during frisbee and got a nice bruise on my leg. After singtime we listened to a presentation on Amazing Grace, a new musical that Dr. Ohrt (choir director) is involved with.
Wednesday the Altos didn’t do so well in choir… but Frisbee was fun, and in theory we got to compose something.
Friday was superhero day, dress rehearsal, and skit night. I dressed up as Superhobbit. After lunch Brian (the other oboe, and my stand partner), met with Mrs. Harding to look over band music. We had a slight bit of a tournament during Frisbee.
Dress rehearsal went well, and the band even pulled off a prank – in “Slava,” one of our songs, we’re supposed to yell “Slava!” but instead we yelled “Gary!” because that’s Mr. Stith’s first name. 😀
Skit night was a blast. Jenna, Katherine, Jesse, Adam, Jonathan, Carolyn, Stephen and I put on a skit of imitations of people, saying things they say a lot, telling bad puns like Mr. Haynes, etc…
Saturday was field day and the concert, both were so much fun.
Field day – we played water balloon volleyball, a game like capture the flag, and octopus, then had a water balloon fight in which everyone got soaked. 😛 My house won for the girls, the house of Qadosh. Then we had to clean our wing and get ready for escorting and the concert. My escort kept commenting on how much the flowers had grown during the week. 😛
The concert went smoothly, and then I went with the H’s (H’s from Dubai) to Chik-Fil-A and then stayed the night at their house and went to Church. It was a really refreshing time to be away from uncomfortable mattresses and be with good friends… Back on campus we played Polish Ping-Pong and went for dinner. For Devotions we went down to the circle, sang, and looked at the stars.
Monday started the second week. band music isn’t as hard but it’s not quite as good, either, in my opinion.
Tuesday night was the big pillow fight and some other interesting things… we won’t go there yet as I don’t have pictures from that.
Cuppa Cup Frisbee Championship started on Tuesday. I’m on Zein’s team, and so far we’ve won 1, lost 1… so we’re still in the game.
Wednesday finished the tournament… and we won!
Zein, Yunji, Sabrina, Audrey, Jessica, Layne, Gavin, Justin, Mr. Shute, Johnny, Tim, and I.

After theory a lot of us went to the Mann Center to hear the Philly Orchestra play. That was fun, it was pretty music under the stars, but the best parts were the car ride there and back – there, I helped David navigate, and on the way back Layne and I played around with the GPS and talked about music while trying to ignore the Greaves crazy singing from the back… 😛
Thursday was also the last day of theory. 😦 Tim, Carolyn, Gavin, Yunji, Layne and I played basketball for a little while during free time.
Friday we had last rehearsals and then dress rehearsal. The violins pranked Mr. Hong really well in orchestra, they all played a bad note at one point. In choir we bowed after one song just for the fun of it (warming up for the concert Dr. Ohrt wondered if we were going to do it for real… :P) After listening to the faculty spotlight, we headed over to the MAC for a “bon.” (An in door bonfire, cuz it was raining). That was a really encouraging time of singing and sharing.

Then we had ice cream floats and went to bed.
Saturday were the student recitals and awards.
Then we cleaned and got ready for the concert. The concert went smoothly, and it was enjoyable. Then came some really sad goodbyes. I stayed on campus until later that night, and Anna and I talked a lot, as well as running in the rain. Then we played chess and talked with Jon, Adam, Gavin, Seth, and Jenna for a while.

So many things I’ve left out here… there’s so much to remember, so much to go back to, so many people to miss… but these are the things I’ll never for get –

– Alex the super ninja monkey… (With Sarah) (playing Frisbee)

-Shawn D. – probably one of the counsellors I talked to the most… he called me ninja princess cuz of Frisbee… I think I like Alex’s “Velcro-Fingers” for myself a bit more…
Shawn goofing off with some of the guys after the concert.

-Running in the rain with Anna. It was pouring rain out after dinner the last night so we decided to go get my cloak from the dorm and get cards and my chess set, but then Memorial was closed and I didn’t have my key card so we had to run back and get Katie’s then back to Memorial before we could get in… good times…
– Prayer time before band with Mr. Stith. Probably some of the most encouraging times at Csehy.
– WONDERFUL theory classes with the Brittons.
-Frustrations over playing Slava.
– Dr. Ohrt saying “You know what I mean?”
– Jon H.’s performance of The Carnival of Venice… on Euphonium. Jon and Eric during band
– Making faces with Layne over the flutes during band. Layne making a face

– having a preparation-for-clash-day party
– no awkwardness in escorting like I thought there would be…
– arguing over pronunciation with Jon
– playing Frisbee – (Go Tim!)
– talking with Carolyn about guilt, pride, and perfection.
– Yunji, my room mate, on sugar high.
– Brian, the bestest stand partner ever. Dressed up for skit night. Brian and Jo Ann
– Playing Polish Ping-Pong.
– Layne’s sharing in Sing-Time… the 3 times he talked were all really encouraging.
– Singing the Hallelujah Chorus… that was wonderful.
– talking with Kelly Hayes.
– Mr. Haynes’s bad puns.
– Cheering on the Emirati Guard Cuppa Cup Frisbee team from the sidelines when I was off the field, and playing with them on the field.
– Playing Mrs. Rawleigh’s oboe.
– Sharing in sing time.
– Getting the nicknames “Ninja princess,” and “Velcro-Fingers.”
– Playing the cup game.
– Emily and the clothes pin of doom.
– All of Qadosh… Carolyn H., Carolyn T., Katherine, Yunji, Ruth, and Myself… Qadosh in the second week, Ruth had left. (Minus me & Carolyn H in this picture, ‘course).
– Skit Night –
– Band
– Choir
-Justin.

The tallest… 6′ 5″, and the shortest… 4′ 9″.

Me playing

Well… It was an awesome time… and there are things of just daily Csehy life, like being dismissed from meals, band, practicing… that I’ll never ever ever forget…
More later, probably my chapel notes. Hopefully there will be a few more pictures up on the Csehy website soon, like from escorting the second week and the pillow fight.

Anna: Yeah, Carolyn is gorgeous… in and out. 🙂
Velcro-Fingers because I made a pretty good catch one day, so from then on Alex called me Velcro-Fingers… and about the second to last day I jumped kinda high to catch a frisbee and Shawn decided to call me Ninja Princess… I told him that Alex was the ninja, not me… 😛